Friday, August 30, 2013

On Wednesday Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) officially raised the level of severity of the radioactive water leak at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant to level three, on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES), according to multiple sources in and out of Japan.

This follows the devastating news from last week when Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO)said 330 tons of highly radioactive water leaked from a storage tank at the facility.

Arnie Gundersen, a former nuclear industry executive who has coordinated projects at 70 nuclear power plants around the United States says "The problem is going to get worse," and continues on to state "Radioactive water is leaking out of this plant as fast as it is leaking in."

It is noteworthy that TEPCO and Japan have continuously downplayed news about the severity of the situation since 2011, so it is logical for experts to be concerned that the problem is a good deal worse than either Tepco or the Japanese government are willing to admit.

"The quantities of water they are dealing with are absolutely gigantic," said Mycle Schneider, who has consulted widely for a variety of organisations and countries on nuclear issues.

"What is the worse is the water leakage everywhere else - not just from the tanks. It is leaking out from the basements, it is leaking out from the cracks all over the place. Nobody can measure that.

According to Gundersen, the deluge of toxic water into the Pacific has already contaminated the ocean and this will be the last year he eats west coast fish. CTVNews reports that Gundersen says that halfway across the Pacific, scientists are measuring cesium levels that are 10 times higher than normal.

The ramifications of this is not only for ocean life, but the economy as well since tens of thousands of people depend on the money made directly and indirectly from Pacific Ocean jobs and the seafood that comes from the west coast, which is going to be hit hard by Fukushima radiation.